Bayahibe 2015 Trip Report

[Qnape]

With a desire to try some new locations in the Caribbean without spending too much, we decided to look into diving in the Dominican Republic. I swiftly discovered that Bayahibe was the place to try, and thanks to a great recommendation here by a member we decided to dive with John at ScubaFun. We stayed at the Iberostar nearby, and John arranged for a pickup everyday - a short 5 minute drive.

We had a great time diving with John's op - my 21 year old daughter and her boyfriend who got certified for this trip both were thrilled and said that the choice of shop made the trip. Her bf made his first ocean dives, proved to be both calm and competent and enjoyed all his dives, including his first night dive.

Most of the dives were shallower and simpler (little current and no swim-throughs) than what I'm used to in Cozumel, for example, but that was ideal for the new diver - and the reefs we visited were in pretty good to excellent shape save for the lack of bigger fish like grouper. Some spots were really pristine; Nick, John's nephew (our DM for most of the trip) explained that they were sections of the reef that only Scuba Fun dives and have had no pressure from divers at all. Penon 1 and 3 were great, and even Viva Shallows, though a bit beaten up and with more particulates adrift, was very much alive with a large number of spotted morays in the daytime, and two nice octopus (and more of course) on the night dive. Lots of basket stars, which I always like to see at night. Plentiful trumpetfish on many dives, including some quite large ones with pronounced blue coloration on their heads. Fields of garden eels near the dive sites at Catalina along with some yellow headed jawfish. The second site we dove at Catalina was particularly pristine with lots of delicate tunicates, and even a very large lettuce leaf sea slug I spotted near the end - we had to cut the Catalina dives a bit short to accommodate all the snorkelers, unfortunately, or these would have been 70 minute dives as well. My wife was with the snorkelers, said there was much to see and enjoyed spending the day with the rest of us. Visibility was very good to excellent on most of the dives all week except for Viva Shallows.

I was very pleased to find plentiful healthy pillar corals on several of the sites we dove - these are increasingly uncommon even in places like Little Cayman, Belize, and Cozumel. We saw few elkhorn corals, and no grouper or sharks, but you can't have everything, I guess. We did see one hawksbill turtle and a large green moray. Nick found us two gorgeous Seahorses on one of our dives, along with baby trunkfish (dice size). Altogether the reefs were better than I would have imagined for Hispanola.

John came out with me to dive the St George wreck. It is deep with the keel at about 145'. He and I penetrated throughout and down to the engine room at 130' - a very cool and enjoyable dive! Just four of us went for the day - John and I, and DM Igor with another diver. John and his DM's are great fun and very safety conscious; we did a deep stop for the St. George, took plenty of time ascending and still surfaced with 1000 psi.

Thank goodness I stock my drybox pretty well; I blew the small o-ring on my reg hose just as we turned on the valve to splash for the second dive that day - but I had one in my kit along with the wrench to do the job. Most boats have spare tank o-rings but are not likely to have small ones. We had a nice long 70 minute second dive at The Rifles dive site. Interestingly, we found that someone had set up a staghorn coral cutting nursery nearby; neither John not Igor knew who.

I would heartily recommend anyone considering diving in The Dominican Republic to go for it - I agree with others that based upon what we saw this diving destination is underrated. ScubaFun was a great choice to dive with, and there are plenty of good sites to dive.

Please enjoy a few photos from the trip - on the following posts.

Safe Diving!


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[PeterNBiddle]

Great trip report - thanks for posting it! We are going to be in the DR and might get a few dives in while we're there. This is a big help.

 

[drrich2]

Some gorgeous photos there.

What'd you think of staying at the Iberostar?

What did you think of Dominican Republic as an overall value trip?

Compared to mainstream destinations (e.g.: Cozumel, Belize, Bonaire, the Caymans), is it somewhere to go when you've done the rest and want somewhere new, or should it be crowding into the 1st line destination line up?

How many boat dives/day could you do? Were afternoon or night dives offered? Was shore diving an option?

Richard.

 

[jonhall]

Thanks for the report. I hope to hit the DR in the near future. Have to convince my dive buddy it is safe enough in DR, otherwise it's going to be just my wife and I. Would have options of places to stay through my timeshare.

Great pictures!!

 

[coldwaterlloyd]

Bayahibe is a great destination .

It is also very affordable , with the low canadian dollar it is my only choice these days .

Great value and a very nice area .

 

[Qnape]

Some gorgeous photos there.

What'd you think of staying at the Iberostar?

What did you think of Dominican Republic as an overall value trip?

Compared to mainstream destinations (e.g.: Cozumel, Belize, Bonaire, the Caymans), is it somewhere to go when you've done the rest and want somewhere new, or should it be crowding into the 1st line destination line up?

How many boat dives/day could you do? Were afternoon or night dives offered? Was shore diving an option?

Richard.

The Iberostar was very nice, and was priced well. The beach was very nice, sandy and spacious. The pool is quite large - in need of some tiling repairs, but fine. We splurged a bit for our room and stayed in an oceanfront suite, which gave us a huge living room, additional bathroom, closets, and three times the balcony space. Excessive, almost, but the price was right. We liked both our room, and the more standard room our daughter had very much. The food - well - it's an Iberostar all-inclusive. As the class goes, it's fine, and there's always plenty to eat - but we're spoiled by, say, the Cozumel Palace which is much better. Top shelf booze, for example. was only available at the lobby bar - so we passed on pool bar drinks.

As an overall value - it's a good one. I think Cozumel is an even better bargain depending how you do it, but we were very satisfied. It's one of the reasons we decided on Bayahibe.

I'd still consider Bayahibe as a diving destination second to places like the Caymans and Cozumel, or Belize out at the atolls (we're heading to Turneffe in August) based on the lack of larger life. At the same time, with some nicer than expected reefs, little to no current, little diver pressure and a great dive shop to work with, there's a lot to recommend in Bayahibe. It also works for a group that is not entirely composed of divers - only a small percentage of the guests at the Iberostar were there to dive. it's a great place for folks who might need to save a few bucks - while Cozumel can be done for the same or less, the Caymans can be a lot more.

We did not ask about afternoon dives; my daughter and her bf were not interested. We did do a night dive, and enjoyed that very much. John at Scubafun was easy to work with and did his best to ensure that we had great dives and a great time. I'm certain he'd work with divers interested in some afternoon dives; he has a few different boat sizes to work with. Scubafun does its boat dives from a small harbor in town; there's no shore diving there I am certain. We did not ask at the Iberostar. They have a Dressel Diver's shop at the resort which is very convenient, but we did not see anyone shore diving. We are not sorry that we dove with Scubafun instead of the more convenient option - I am certain that we had a much better experience through John's op.

 

[Qnape]

Thanks for the report. I hope to hit the DR in the near future. Have to convince my dive buddy it is safe enough in DR, otherwise it's going to be just my wife and I. Would have options of places to stay through my timeshare.

Great pictures!!

Scubafun is located in town at Bayhibe and we took a short 5 minute taxi ride arranged through the dive shop to and from the Iberostar. From the shop you take a short walk down to the harbor to get aboard your boat. We felt comfortable walking through town, and there were a couple of restaurants we might have tried near the waterfront if we weren't at the Iberostar. Nick, our dm for many of our dives and the shop owner's nephew, seemed very comfortable in living in the area for the last year or two. We felt no specific safety concerns. Of course Bayahibe is kinda sleepy compared to Punta Cana.

Safe Diving!

 

[Maros]

Very nice review and awesome pictures . Bayahibe-Dominicus area is #1 for diving in Dominican Republic. It´s on the Caribbean side of the island, where the sea is much calmer and visibility is better than in for example Punta Cana/Bavaro. Much more corals and marine life, so for a diving vacation, be sure to choose Bayahibe. There are many dive centres that also offer diving day trips to the islands, that are just amazing (for diving better to find a company that will take you to the El Penon and Tortuga (Aquarium II)). Diving on the Wall and Aquarium on Catalina is also nice but on the other way it´s just nicer .

 

[PeterNBiddle]

Great trip report - thanks for posting it! We are going to be in the DR and might get a few dives in while we're there. This is a big help.

It turned out we spent all our time in-country or on the north central coast. Had a great time overall and had a few days of snorkeling, with the best being Playa Caleton, which was an excellent adventure (we got 27 people into a Daihatsu minivan just to get there!) but frankly it was only mediocre snorkeling.

It's all NBTADP (Nothing Bigger Than A Dinner Plate) within reach of all the beaches we snorkeled on the top of the island. Everywhere we went has been clearly heavily fished and as the local places all serve locally caught fresh fish, with parrot fish being a favorite, it's easy to see how that would be true.

But girl howdy is the water pretty, the people lovely, the food tasty and the drinks cheap.

 

[bmorescuba]

That's one of the prettiest Lettuce Sea Slugs I've ever seen! Thanks for the report.